1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network agents. More specifically, the present invention relates to network agents and network databases that are combined to provide a permanent virtual presence on a network such as the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
The explosive growth of the Internet has popularized the sending and receiving of electronic mail (e-mail) and the World Wide Web. The Web and e-mail have enabled individuals and vendors to buy and to sell products or services directly. E-mail is well-tailored to the individual user; all of the e-mails sent or received by a user are available to that user. Web-browsing, however, is not tailored to the individual, who must visit different Web sites to fulfill different needs. For instance, a user might go to a specific Web site, sign in to prove his identity, and input personal data in order to enable various transactions. Furthermore, the information on the Web site that is useful to that user typically comprises a small portion of the total content of that Web site. Time and energy are required for the user to search for the needed information. Finally, there is no convenient place for the user to store, compile, access and use information he has successfully acquired. In sum, the current architecture of the Internet's World Wide Web implements a “Web site-centric” paradigm rather than an “individual-centric” paradigm that is exemplified by e-mail.
The Internet comprises a vast number of computers and computer networks that are interconnected through communication links. The interconnected computers exchange information using various services, such as electronic mail and the World Wide Web (“WWW” or simply “Web”). A Web computer server system (i.e., Web server) can send collections of textual and graphical content, called Web pages, to a remote client computer system. The remote client computer system can then display the Web pages. Each Web page corresponds to a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). A user at a client system can request a server system to send a Web page by entering the Web page URL into a Web browser. A Web browser is a software application that manages communication between the client system and other computers connected to the Internet. Example Web browsers include Netscape Navigator, manufactured by Netscape Corporation of Mountain View, Calif.; Opera, manufactured by Opera Software A/S of Oslo, Norway; and Internet Explorer, manufactured by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.
Web pages are typically written in Hypertext Markup Language (“HTML”). By using this common language, a server system and a Web browser can communicate with easy-to-use graphical Web pages. When a client system receives an HTML formatted document from a Web server, the Web browser software displays the Web page according to the HTML tags. It is the HTML tags that direct a Web browser to display text, graphics, and other features in the manner designated by the Web page author. Further, a Web page can also define communications that result from user actions such as database queries. For example, the Web browser displaying a specific Web page will send a signal to the server system if the user clicks a mouse button while the mouse pointer is situated over a certain area of the Web page. Web pages may also contain hyperlinks (“links”) that cause the Web browser to request a specific URL when that link is invoked (“clicked”) by the user.
The “Web site-centric” paradigm is widely recognized to be inefficient and awkward to use. Several projects are underway with the intent to “personalize” the Internet, i.e. to make the Internet less Web site-centric. Personalized portals, such as “My Yahoo!” by Yahoo! Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., and “My Excite” of Excite@Home of Redwood City, Calif., allow an individual user to set up a personalized Web page that contains links to information from preselected sources. Personal information aggregation that is facilitated by companies such as Yodlee.com Inc. of Redwood City, Calif. allow an individual user to set up a personalized Web page that contains data, including personal data, that is culled from pre-elected Web sites defined by the user.
Personalization has also spread beyond the Web site, as companies such as MicroStrategy Incorporated of Vienna, Va., send information from pre-selected sources to an individual user's mobile phone, personal digital assistant (“PDA”), or e-mail server.
Security and anonymity on the Internet for individual users are available through use of the “Freedom” software sold by Zero-Knowledge Systems Inc. of Montreal, Canada. By masking the origin and the identity of the user's online activities, the user remains anonymous on the (unsecure) Internet and thus retains control over the disclosure of his personal information. Zero-Knowledge is not, however, a “trusted third party.” On the contrary, Zero-Knowledge wishes to remain merely a masking agent to whom the user's identity is also unknown and not retrievable.
Finally, Microsoft Corporation's “.NET” initiative seeks to make the Web and its services ubiquitous. According to Microsoft,                “Microsoft .NET extends the ideas of both the Internet and the operating system by making the Internet itself the basis of a new operating system. Ultimately, this will allow developers to create programs that transcend device boundaries and fully harness the connectivity of the Internet in their applications.” Microsoft .NET Developer Overview, available at: http://www.microsoft.com/net/developer/developers.asp        The Web services model on which it is based means that while the central business elements of corporate applications will still generally be managed locally, the services to support them—user authentication, file storage, user preference management, calendaring, mail, and the like—can be subscribed to seamlessly instead of locally managed.” Microsoft .NET IT Overview, available at http://www.microsoft.com/net/it/netforit.asp        
The .NET initiative seeks to provide Microsoft software that will enable the exchange of documents, via the Extensible Markup Language (“XML”). Use of XML will enable disparate Web sites to exchange data with one another, thereby automating the control of the Internet for greater ease of use. However, without an effective, targeted way to personalize, organize, and manage tremendous amounts of online information, the Microsoft .NET initiative remains wholly Web site-centric and extremely difficult to execute.
Unfortunately, none of the prior art Web-reform projects, alone or in combination, achieve the ideal of the individual-centric Internet experience. There is, therefore, a need in the art for an apparatus and method for enabling a truly individual-centric Internet presence and experience.